Inmate: Jail won't provide proper medical care

August 20, 2013 10:44:28 AM

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JACKSON -- A federal judge has scheduled a hearing Monday for a paraplegic inmate who says he should be released from detention because he's not receiving proper medical care at the Madison County jail.

Yartney Greer is jailed on a charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in September 2012 in Holmes County. He was indicted in April and later ordered held without bond.

A court filing by Greer's lawyer, Mike Scott, says a change of plea hearing was started in July but was continued to address Greer's complaints about his medical care.

The filing says Greer became a paraplegic in 2007 and requires the use of catheters to urinate, but he says the jail won't consistently give him clean ones.

"This has led him to have to hoard used catheters and re-use them as needed," leading to infections, Scott wrote in an Aug. 6 filing.

"The infections have been exacerbated by the fact that has not been allowed to take showers on a regular basis which is crucial in helping keep the area where the catheter is inserted clean," Scott wrote.

Greer also had surgery in January to remove his spleen and a stint was implanted to stop leakage, and Scott says jail authorities haven't arranged for him to see a doctor for the issue.